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<TJ? <2 TRAGEDY OF 
FRAN CE SCA DA RIMINI 






A\ A 




OTIS SKINNER 

T> R~E S E N'TinG 

GE°RG E HTOKER 

FRANCESCA 
D A RIMINI 


WITH ANy^PPRE Cl ATI OJV By 

LYMAN B*GLOVER_ 


RALPH FLETCHER^ SEYMOUR 
Tu Wish er C H I C AG O MD CCCCT 




rl\ % 

b 



THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 
Two Cop *ta Received 

AUG. 30 1901 

Copyright entry 
CLASS XXc. N<*. 
COPY B. 


3d /T 


Copyright, 1901 

BY 

JOSEPH BUCKLEY 


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q^e Story^Rimini 


"A thousand more he show' d me, and by name 
Pointed them out, whom love bereaved of life." 

— Inferno, Canto V. 

whose Inferno 
Leigh Hunt aptly 
describes as “a sub- 
lime nightmare,” 
became human 
and sincere at one 
moment during 
that gruesome and 
awful journey 
through the nether 
world of his own imagination, which he under- 
took, accompanied by laurel-crowned V lrgil. 
The episode of Francesca and Paolo, which 
has been appropriately recognized as “ the 
most cordial and refreshing in the whole of 



TJ?e TRAGEDY OF 


THE KISS 
DANTE 
GABRIEL 
ROSETTI 




FRANCESCA DA RIMINI 


that singular poem,” arrests, for a moment, 
the storm-tossed procession of horrors which 
the poet is describing. Drifting by, with 
others of their kind — Helen, Achilles, Tris- 
tan, Isolde, Paris, and Cleopatra in the mourn- 
ful company — the sorrow-beaten souls of the 
Rimini lovers come into view. Whereupon 
Dante, with the terror of the scenes which 
he had just witnessed transformed, for the 
moment, into gracious compassion, tenderly 
invites speech, and begs to know the cause of 
their sad downfall and ceaseless punishment. 
The two-score lines of confession which 
Francesca forthwith utters in trembling 
and broken accents, her lover moaning 
piteously the while, provide the basis and 
inspiration, although not the detailed source, 
of all the varied efforts in which the fancy 
of poets, painters, and dramatists has pre- 
served and idealized the sad fate of the 
ill-starred princess of Ravenna. As to a 
father-confessor she thus recites the primal 
cause of all her grief: 

I will do 

As one who weeps and tells her tale. One day 

For our delight we read of Lancelot, 


THE 

STORY 

OF 

RIMINI 


<TJ;e TRAGEDY OF 


FRAN- 

CESCA, 

PHOTO 
BY THE 
GAINS- 
BOROUGH 
STUDIO, 
LONDON 







FRAN CE SCA DA RIMINI 


How him love thrall’d. Alone we were, and no 
Suspicion near us. Oft-times by that reading 
Our eyes were drawn together, and the hue 
Fled from our alter’d cheek. But at one point 
Alone we fell. When of that smile we read, 

The wished smile so rapturously kiss’d 
By one so deep in love, — then he, who ne’er 
From me shall separate, at once my lips 
All trembling kiss’d. The book and writer both 
Were love’s purveyors. In its leaves that day 
We read no more. 


S O slight a germ as this, certified by 
Dante, sprouting in the soil of Italian 
romance, cherished and developed by 
Petrarch, Boccaccio, and Tassoni, and nur- 
tured, ages later, by the poesy of Leigh Hunt, 
blossomed out in the nineteenth century into 
plays of exalted consequence written by 
Silvio Pellico, George H. Boker, and Stephen 
Phillips. Not even the crowding centuries 
could crush out the sympathy inspired by 
this love unto death. 

T HE pathos of human suffering, the 
agony of a wicked but resistless love, 
the piteous entanglements of an ill 
fortune that mismates the eagle with the 
linnet, the hawk with the nightingale, the 


THE 

STORY 

OF 

RIMINI 


7 ~J?e TRAGEDY OF 



LANC1- 

OTTO, 

PHOTO 

BY 

INGLIS 



FRAN CESCA DA RIMINI 


irony of a fate that unites inharmonious 
souls, and then, flinging down the barriers, 
invites the victims to an alluring but guilty 
paradise, — this, and all this, has contributed 
the one touch of nature that preserved the 
story of Francesca through the long ages. It 
matters not if some part of the tear-stained 
tale was born in the imagination of the poet, 
yet the Guineveres and the Francescas blot 
with tears all the pages of history, and stand 
as sad examples along life’s highway. No ray 
of the pale moon that does not fall upon 
one of their weeping sisters. The poet Dante, 
fired by the tale of Lancelot, may have 
fitted that incident of Malatesta’s court at 
Rimini to a like setting in a frame of sorrowful 
romance. The parallel runs close enough 
to suggest more than an accidental co- 
incidence. Yet Dante lived at the court of 
the heroine’s father, Count Guido Novello 
de Polenta, in Ravenna, not long after this 
sentimental episode is known to have taken 
place. With a youthful, eager and poetic 
soul he drank in the romantic stories of the 
hour, listening meanwhile to war’s alarums, 


THE 

STORY 

OF 

RIMINI 





GARDEN SCENE 



FRAN CE SCA DA RIMINI 


in the midst of which he developed to the 
splendid stature of “The Divine Comedy.” 
The minor historians of Ravenna con- 
firmed the story of Francesca, and if the 
novelists of the time did not weave it 
into the web and woof of their imaginings, 
the difficult and delicate nature of the theme 
may provide a reason. Whether, as seems 
possible, the fate of Francesca is but a dim 
replica of the Arthurian legend of Guinevere 
and Lancelot which Tennyson has com- 
mitted to a deathless fame in “The Idylls of 
the King,” or a verity with the downfall of 
the lovers ascribed to reading Lancelot of 
the Lake, as a poetic afterthought, is a 
problem over which readers of tragic poetry 
will not disturb themselves. It is a master- 
piece of association that bridges the centuries, 
separating Arthur’s faithless wife from Fran- 
cesca, who forgot her vows to Lanciotto, and 
that discovers a vivid but doubtless un- 
conscious parallel between Lancelot and 
Paolo. Lancelot of the Lake, favorite of 
King Arthur among the twelve splendid 
knights of the Round Table! Lancelot sent 


THE 

STORY 

OF 

RIMINI 


‘Ti’e TRAGEDY OF 


PAOLO, 

PHOTO 

BY 

BROWN- 
ELL 
& PAGE 



Fran ce sca da rimini 


by the king to escort his chosen queen ! 

Then Arthur charged his warrior whom he loved 
And honor’d most. Sir Lancelot, to ride forth 
And bring the Queen ; — and watched him from 
the gates : 

And Lancelot past away among the flowers, 

(For then was latter April) and return’d 
Among the flowers, in May, with Guinevere. 

IDYLLS OF THE KING. 

L ANCELOT who wooed the expectant 
queen in his own behalf and broke 
the heart of Elaine, the 44 Lily Maid 
of Astolat,” who hung his shield in her cham- 
ber and died grieving, to float on that funeral 
barge in quest of her heart’s love. 

Then rose the dumb old servitor, and the dead. 
Oar’d by the dumb, went upward with the flood — 
In her right hand the lily, in her left 
The letter — all her bright hair streaming down. 

IDYLLS OF THE KING. 


Thus the mythology of the sixth century, 
laden with the pomp and circumstance of 
brave knights and stirring tourneys, of fair 
ladies enwrapped in the glittering figment 
of romance, of panoplied steed and splendid 
armour, strikes hands at Rimini with the tra- 
ditions of the thirteenth century. Lancelot 


THE 

STORY 

OF 

RIMINI 









FRANCE SCA DA RIMINI 


and Guinevere emerge from the gracious 
mists of the past as romantic prototypes of 
Francesca and Paolo. 

A S Lancelot is the King’s messenger 
to Guinevere and wooes her for him- 
self, so Paolo goes forth to fetch a 
bride for his brother, Lanciotto, only to be- 
come ensnared by her charms. Lanciotto, 
another King Arthur in manly qualities, 
although unhandsome and misshapen, lays 
his commands upon Paolo in same sense as 
Arthur commissioned Lancelot many ages 
before. 

You shall go to bring Francesca. 

Pray you speak of me 
Not as I ought to be, but as I am. 

BOKER’S FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. 


H EREIN lies the tragedy. Flint and 
steel struck together by resistless 
fate — then comes the flame fed by 
reflections from the lowest depths of hell. 
Francesca first believing that Paolo is the 
bridegroom-elect and then incensed at what 
bears likeness of attempted deception, is 


THE 

STORY 

OF 

RIMINI 


<TJ?e TRAGEDY OF 


THE 

STORY 

OF 

RIMINI 


still true to her pact. Ravenna must be 
saved by this alliance with Lanciotto, Rimini’s 
conquering prince. But the messenger and 
not his soldier brother holds a place in her 
heart. And Paolo also struggles without avail 
against the resistless current of passion. 

Since I came 

Heaven bear me witness how my traitor heart 
Has fought against my duty; and how oft 
I wish myself in Lanciotto’s place, 

Or him in mine. 

BOKER’s FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. 


B UT if there be a parallel between the 
myths of King Arthur’s time and the 
story of Rimini, what matters it? It 
does not signify even though the venomous 
Mordred of Arthur’s knights finds a reflec- 
tion in Pepe, the court clown, whose cunning 
trapped Francesca as Mordred’s creatures 
spied upon Lancelot and Guinevere, when — 


Passion-pale they met 

And greeted: hands in hands, and eye to eye. 
Low on the borders of her couch they sat 
Stammering and staring: it was their last hour, 

A madness of farewells. 


IDYLLS OF THE KING. 


FRANCESCA and PAOLO 


“I have made her hand 
The price and pledge of Guido's future peace." 

— Borer’s Francesca da Rimini. 

Italian writers 
following Dante 
did not neglect 
the story of 
Francesca, tell- 
ing it, however, 
as he had,inhur- 
ried suggestion 
rather than with 
legitimate detail 
and ample per- 
spective of literary and dramatic narrative. 
Petrarch mentions the lovers in his “Trionfo 
d’Amore” among many sad examples of 
calamitous passion. Tassoni, another writer 
whose early beginnings were cast under the 
fervid influence of the strange genius out 
of whose imagination grew the 44 Divine 
Comedy,” introduced Paolo Malatesta in his 
44 Tragic-Comic War,” leading the troops of 
Rimini. 




CATHEDRAL SCENE 






FRAN CE SCA DA RIMINI 


B OCCACCIO, the most faithful and ad- 
miring follower of Dante, and chronicler 
of that idealized love-story in which 
the poet’s Beatrice is the shining star, describes 
the fateful episode of Francesca and Paolo at 
greater length and with more detail than any 
of his fellows; and Rossi, in his history of 
Ravenna, provides a version of his own. Yet 
none of the contemporaneous writers, saving 
the author of “The Inferno,” appreciated this 
incident as an inspiring theme for epic 
poem or dramatic verse. It was not until 
the weight of five centuries rested upon the 
dumb, ashen bones of all who had acted 
their part in this pathetic tragedy, that an 
English poet, Leigh Hunt by name, who 
dreamed in literary kinship with Byron, dug 
out of the mouldering past this tale of un- 
happy love, re-peopled it according to his 
own vagrom fancy, and gave “The Story of 
Rimini” to the world in such ample elabora- 
tion that its tragic value and dramatic import 
were perceived for the first time. Francesca, 
Paolo, Giovanni, the wronged brother, 
Guido, and other personages, among them 


FRAN- 

CESCA 

AND 

PAOLO 


<Tj7e TR.AGEDY OF 


FRAN- 

CESCA 

AND 

PAOLO 


Mr. Skinner 
(as Paolo), 
Mr. Barrett, 
Mr. James, 
and 

Mr. Rogers 
in the first 
production of 
the play 



Dante, “ the 
young father of 
Italian song,” 
were brought to 
life in the glow- 
ing meter of 
poesy. The tale 
is told in such 
swelling and joy- 
ous rhythm that 
English litera- 
ture seems to 
have justified itself in a labored attempt for 
which the early and the later Italian writers 
lacked either skill or courage. 


T HE poet introduces his epic at Rav- 
enna with a rapturous description of 
Paolo’s coming to fetch his brother’s 
bride, and the first fateful meeting of 
love’s messenger with the beautiful Fran- 
cesca is pictured in glowing colors and 
glittering phrase. The action is next 
transferred, with equal pomp and circum- 
stance, to Rimini, where the catastrophe of 


FRANCESCA DA RIMINI 


love occurs, and the twain are in one sad 
burial blent. This excerpt amply represents 
the peculiar and often common-place rhetoric 
of Leigh Hunt, and refers to that incident 
of the reading wherein the lovers stumbled 
and fell. 


As thus they sat, and felt with leaps of heart 
Their color change; they came upon the part 
Where fond Geneura, with her flame long nurst, 
Smiled upon Lancelot when he kissed her first: 
That touch, at last, through every fibre slid, 

And Paolo turned, scarce knowing what he did, 
Only he felt he could no more dissemble, 

And kissed her, mouth to mouth, all in a tremble. 
Sad were those hearts, and sweet was that long kiss: 
Sacred be love from sight, whate’er it is. 

The world was all forgot, the struggle o’er, 
Desperate the joy — that day they read no more. 


O THER distinguished men, some be- 
longing to the Victorian age, were 
inspired to write, if not in dramatic 
form at least in an appreciative manner of 
this happening at Rimini. Thomas Carlyle, 
the sage of Cheyne Row, to whom tender 
sentiment seemed an unusual impulse, not 
only speaks with rare sympathy of Dante the 
poet and Dante the man whose love for 
Beatrice was immortal, but is plunged into 


FRAN- 

CESCA 

AND 

PAOLO 


TJ?e TRAGEDY OF 


p£pe, 

PHOTO 

BY 

BROWN- 
ELL 
& PAGE 



FRAN CE SCA DA RIMINI 


the tenderest mood by thought of Francesca 
and the pitiful tale she told in the depths of 
Inferno. Of Dante’s word-painting he ex- 
claims: 44 Francesca and her lover, what 
qualities in that!” A thing woven as out of 
rainbows on a ground of eternal black. A 
small flute voice of infinite wail speaks there 
into our very heart of hearts.” 

N OR could Longfellow, antipode of 
Carlyle, resist the charm of this 
world - conquering sympathy that 
flows out from Dante’s wondrous two-score 
lines of poetry, which sent this one tale 
flaming down through the ages. His in- 
spired pen translated the older poet’s 
lines into the best and most eloquent 
English it has yet attained. To another 
American, Hon. George H. Boker, belongs 
the proud distinction of being the first to 
give adequate dramatic form to this theme. 

T HE opening scene discloses the 
theme. Lanciotto must marry Fran- 
cesca of Ravenna in order to cement 
a peace, and handsome Paolo is dispatched 


FRAN- 

CESCA 

AND 

PAOLO 


FRAN CE SCA DA RIMINI 


FRAN- 

CESCA 

AND 

PAOLO 


to fetch the bride. In the second act the two 
who should never have met are brought 
together, and in the third Lanciotto is 
betrothed at Rimini, artful Francesca insisting 
on the pact, to save Ravenna, and so deceiving 
the dwarf that he exclaims in ecstacy: 

There’s not a blessing in the cup of life 
I have not tasted of within an hour. 

Then comes harrowing doubt, in the fourth 
act, as the wedding is about to occur 
in the great cathedral, and the hunchback 
mournfully declares: 

Press her however cunningly I may, 

She will not utter these three little words — 

I love you. 

Suspicion revives with the marriage, and 
Lanciotto rushes away to the wars, shout- 
ing to his brother in a frenzy of jealous rage: 
“Out of my way, thou juggler.” The filth 
act sweeps on through the delicious love 
scenes to the tragedy of the last act when 
the fool’s revenge is complete, and the gloom 
of eternity settles upon the scene. 

On the same night, these lovers silently 
Were buried in one grave, under a tree. 

There, side by side, and hand in hand, they lay 
In the green ground; and on fine nights in May 
Young hearts betrothed used to go there to pray. 

LEIGH hunt’s STORY OF RIMINI. 


The PLAY and the PLAYER 


“No light had we: for that we do repent; 

And learning this the bridegroom will relent— 

Too late, too late! ye cannot enter now /” 

Tennyson’s “Guinevere.” 

SKINNER is suc- 
cessor in trust of 
the brief dramatic 
history belonging 
to Francesca da Ri- 
mini in the United 
States. Associated 
with Lawrence Bar- 
rett, of enviable 
memory, in the first 
important production of Boker’s remarkable 
play, he not only shared the honors of that 
event through his vivid reflection of Paolo, 
but is heir apparent, by reason of talent, ob- 
servation and knowledge, of all the traditions 
and memories belonging to that dramatic 
incident. Beyond this inheritance, the lapse 
of years, golden with experience, has carried 
this actor to that high point of command 
and distinction which marks him as most 



TJ?e TRAGEDY OF 


“FROM 

THAT 

TROOP— 

THEY 

THROUGH 

THE ILL 

AIR 

SPEEDING" 




FRAN CE SCA DA RIMINI 


fitting among the artists to revive the 
romantic tragedy of Francesca. 

I T was on the evening of November 7th, 
1882, and at McVicker’s theater, Chicago, 
the opening of whose 26th season was 
celebrated by this event, that Boker’s Fran- 
cesca da Rimini was first given representation 
on the stage. With that thoughtful enter- 
prise marking all his efforts in behalf of the 
drama, Mr. Barrett provided excellent scenes, 
a talented company, and that well-tempered 
enthusiasm which sometimes answers a 
worthier purpose than is achieved by an 
irresponsible genius who defies the conven- 
tions. The plaudits of an intelligent public 
rang in his ears, and for two seasons he 
was able to retain Mr. Boker’s play in his 
repertory for frequent repetitions. That Mr. 
Skinner has elected to extend the limited 
history of this tragic story, and give it forth, 
for a time, through the medium of his own ripe 
knowledge, experience and gracious talent, 
is a favoring omen for the new season. It 
indicates that belief in the renasence of the 


THE 

PLAY 

AND 

THE 

PLAYER 


<TJ?e TRAGEDY OF 


THE 

PLAY 

AND 

THE 

PLAYER 


higher types of the drama, which has been 
stimulated by many successful Shakesperean 
and classic revivals, and was confirmed most 
notably by the enthusiasm attending the 
production of Browning’s 44 In a Balcony,” 
an example of tragic intensity in literary 
form, which borrows no aid from ordinary 
theatric device. Mr. Skinner’s most exalted, 
charming and forcible impersonation of 
Norbert confirmed that admiring apprecia- 
tion of his artistic work, which has been 
entertained and expressed, particularly dur- 
ing these recent years since his name was 
enrolled among the stars. It added new 
proof of that spontaneity and power in 
romantic and poetic creations which has dis- 
tinguished Mr. Skinner, and marked him as 
one among a few who can wear the costume 
of courts with distinction, and lend expression 
and fresh beauty to the rhythm of a poetic 
drama. The actor who has conquered 
applause and gained critical commenda- 
tion in characters representing all the vary- 
ing moods of the great writers from comedy 
to tragedy — who turns from Orlando to 


France sca da rimini 


Romeo and Hamlet, and plays Macbeth 
and Shylock with convincing art, may rea- 
sonably appeal to an approving public in any 
character upon which the dramatist has 
placed the stamp of special consequence. 
Lanciotto, in whom the characters of me- 
diaeval romance and of poignant tragedy are 
so effectively combined, is an unusual type 
appealing with irresistible power to the acute 
sensibilities of such an artist as Mr. Skinner. 
A noble soul, gracious and splendid in his 
impulses, yet enduring the pain of deformity, 
his heart swells in the bursting of joy when 
Francesca’s hand is placed in his, only to be 
plunged into the delirium of despair when 
the grim proof of perfidy is thrust upon him. 
Then comes not vengence, but a certain 
eager, sorrowful determination for justice, and 
again a sweeping revulsion of feeling when 
he finds, in one moment of agony, that his 
dead brother was dearer to him than life. 


0 God ! I cannot cheat myself with words ! 

1 loved him more than heaven — more than life — 
This man Paolo — this stark, bleeding corpse ! 
Here let me rest, till God awake us all ! 


THE 

PLAY 

AND 

THE 

PLAYER 


FRAN CE SCA DA RIMINI 


THE 

PLAY 

AND 

THE 

PLAYER 


I T is this complex but lucid character for 
whom our sympathies must bleed — this 
gentleman in deformity, this noble soul 
crushed under the burdens imposed by an 
unkind fate — whom Mr. Skinner has chosen 


to represent. That his engaging talent, mas- 
terful spirit, high appreciation of art values, 
and polished methods fit him to lead in such 
a notable production is the belief of a fast 
increasing multitude. 

. ft. 

-H 



$ere en&s tins Booft, fcestgneD 
ant) publtsljet) bp ftalpl) jfletcljer 
£>epmour, tn €l)tcago, for 
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